Call it backlogged with life, art, exercise, and family. Blogging, or sharing, has taken a backseat. While reading my daily dose of NYT, I came across this great op-ed essay. This portion pulled at me:

I also realize that spirituality and making art are not such different practices. Both call upon the animating force of the unseen. As a writer, I can’t really explain it, either, what I do or how; when I work, I may look like someone staring uselessly into space.

— "Is God Just Not That Into Me?", Stacey D’Erasmo, Modern Love section of New York Times

My tall German girlfriend, also a private yoga teacher to the Malibu elite and fabulous, and I used to spend our afternoons talking about Buddhism, Hinduism, mothering, spirituality, and mindfulness, while we ate raw avocados sitting across from each other on park benches and felt the Southern California sun on our faces and exposed arms. When I perform yoga each day I think of her and that warmth. We haven't seen each other in over a year but still write when we get a chance. We're not the social media type--her an ocean gal; me a woodsy gal; we're offline most often.

As I've been spending nearly all my time in the studio working on a larger piece of work, I think this little illustration is appropriate for Illustration Friday. She mediates starting at 3:30 in the morning. I begin drawing at 5 in the morning. Art is my meditation as I drift into a space way beyond myself. Do you have a space like that?